It's worse then GS makes it out as, it's about as comparable to EWJ2's GBA port actually! Just different flaws!
However, upon entering the game, I found someone must have been on weed! Firstly, the game starts out with the casual AVGN hated swapping of the A and B button, so when I went to test how the gun works, I jump. Now, I could understand the manual claiming I can swap the buttons merely, but why off the bat…wait…I CAN'T? Apparently the manual is not changed aside the dimensions and screen depicting the console's controller, but they didn't modify it and it's misleading to ones who WANT to go ahead and switch this. Usually as of EWJ's basic options being now known, we'd go ahead and start first, so it's a kick to the teeth figuring it out later. Perhaps even learning beforehand and finding this configuration is just about as bad anyways.
Ok, so that's not it at all though. Wasting my time finding it due to not being a copy around in just a year after its release, and I'm serious on that too, I was going to tolerate it for now, though not trying to get too adjusted at the same time. Still, not even their PitFall port swapped them, even having the same animations and physics from the original, even with the sprites being bigger then EWJ's. What did it in is that I jumped full height with only a tap, and to seal the deal, it only used a three frame animation woe's final falling frame was that of when Jim first hits the ground. Yup, his original "cool" looking jump looks more retarded then anything. When bouncing on tires, he looks like he's trying to fly or something!
Now I try to shoot at the crow and I cannot BELIEVE my ears, it is the worst sounding imitation of a little child pretending he has an air machine gun EVER! Eh-eh-eh-eh-eh…pathetic! So I begin home lightly feeling awkward. Upon arrival, I can see better, so I decide to play through it still and get the money's worth. Now, I thought it was going to be bad and I was right. Considering that this is GBA, lightly more powerful then the SNES and close to 32X's 3d capabilities, I wasn't going to believe it HAD to be this bad at all. You know it's bad when the original GB had a version with a BETTER looking Andy Asteroids wormhole effect.
Now how bad is it? Well, every bit of fluidity is gone. Flying enemies slowly levitate in merely 8 directions, as if someone is playing them on the other end with a d-pad, and everything from Evil the Cat and much more is unnecessarily slow. So, rather just missing frames ala Donkey Kong Country GBA's few missing frames from some animations, they also slow the time it takes to perform them as well. This is unacceptable! Not even the lawyer joke looks appealing! It's a tangled mess considering the jokes don't even feel that they're there. How bad are the physics in a comparison to the original? Let's just say it makes Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis for the GBA look like a gem. They are ALL THAT BAD!! It takes forever to clear Evil the Cat's fight due to this, and others are so simple it just makes you think of playing a pre-schooler version of the game.
Now this all said, why is EWJ2 for GBA finally getting this bad attention? If you were to compare it to this one, you could find some great improvements in it. For one, the jumping has better animation, and then it's true that flying enemies or others have great comparable fluidity. EWJ2's problems are more like the GBA Sonic port. They are all intact, making it feel ok and comparable to a point, but then it limits and messes everything up. Considering the technology and the professionalism involved with these ports…there is no excuse. This game let me down and the only good thing about it is its comparable music and still images. After that, I would only want to imagine how it should have been from those misleading photos. It's a laughable attempt and due to EWJ's slowing popularity, it's disgusting to think about that Jim got only two final horrid hand held ports and false hopes of a return with a new game and film, just before taking his probable last breaths of air…as gasps. We never know if EWJ will ever come back…